Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) is organising an accelerator session "Securing Biomass for a Circular Bioeconomy in India" on 18 September 2026 as part of the World Circular Economy Forum 2026 in New Delhi, India.

How should India prioritise its surplus agricultural biomass across feed&fodder, soil health, materials and energy? This closed-door roundtable brings together policymakers, researchers, aggregators and industry to surface where these competing uses collide in practice, and to explore the urgency in need for a shared allocation framework.

This event is an accelerator session at the World Circular Economy Forum 2026 (wcef2026.com). On social media, you can follow the event with #WCEF2026.

Organisers: Council on Energy, Environment and Water 

Date and Time: Friday 18 September 2026, 9:00 am – 11:00 am IST (10:30 pm – 12:30 am CST) 

Venue: Sagarmatha, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), New Delhi (TBC)

Format: In-person;  Invite only

Target audience: Policymakers, Public officials, Business leaders, Market Operators Financiers and Investors, , NGOs, Think tanks

SDGs

Description:

India generates approx 150-230 million tonnes of surplus agricultural biomass every year — a resource increasingly claimed by feed and fodder, soil health, bio-based materials (such as bio-packaging and moulded fibre products), and energy pathways (compressed biogas, biomass-to-power). Each claim is legitimate and separately governed  and the result is growing competition for the same tonne of residue.

This WCEF accelerator session convenes a closed-door, multi-stakeholder roundtable to explore how India should plan for the biomass security essential to propel a green economy . Drawing on CEEW's research on green economy, crop residue management and the circular economy, the session will surface evidence of where this competition creates real operational challenges — in governance, aggregation, financing and project delivery — and test appetite for moving toward a shared framework.

Sample questions the session will explore:

• What governing principles can ensure  a fair availability and access for the competing biomass needs?
• How do we factor in flexibility in the frameworks for crop diversification? 
• How to reduce risk of an extractive biomass model that will compromise feed and soil health?
• How should such a framework account for evolving technology?
• How do we balance today’s urgent needs with the longer net-zero ambitions?

This conversation is directly relevant to the global transition to a circular economy, where multiple viable end-uses increasingly compete for the same biomass resource. It will contribute toward a shared policy framework for biomass allocation in India — one that does not yet exist.

Provisional Agenda

09:00 – 09:10 | Welcome and Context setting

09:10 – 09:20 | Opening remarks by attendees

09:20 – 10:00 | Session 1: Roundtable Discussion — where allocation breaks down in practice

10:05 – 10:45 | Session 2: Roundtable Discussion — Actionable discussion towards allocation principles 

10:45 – 10:55 | Summarising and way forward

10:55 – 11:00 | Closing remarks & Photo op